1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an input interface providing USB apparatus and an interface providing method, and more particularly, to an input interface providing USB apparatus which is capable of providing an input interface for a variety of external devices in Bluetooth communication with the USB apparatus without a separate input means by connecting the USB apparatus to USB ports of a terminal and sharing an input means of the terminal with the external devices, and an interface providing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
With advance of wireless communication technologies, portable devices with a variety of wireless communication technologies have been actively used.
As one example of wireless communication standards, Bluetooth refers to a local area wireless networking technical standard for connecting and controlling a variety of electronic information and communication devices within a short distance (radius of about 10 to 100 m) by wireless using a 2.45 GHz frequency.
Bluetooth may be used to exchange data between information communication devices such as computers, printers, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) as well as various digital home appliances equipped in homes and offices.
In addition, wired networks of almost all home appliances, such as digital cameras, printers and so on, which are capable of wireless data communication and are equipped with Bluetooth functions, can be replaced with wireless networks without requiring cable connection.
Most of recent portable devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs incorporate such Bluetooth functions to allow smooth information exchange in a short distance.
For example, in many cases, a Bluetooth headphone is connected to a smart phone to listen to music or a Bluetooth hands-free is connected to a smart phone to make a call.
In addition, in recent years, as smart phones and tablet PCs have been more frequently used and shared more information than traditional personal computers, users more often than not input or stores information in smart phones or tablet PCs directly.
Smart phones or tablet PCs provide a writing function by incorporating word processing software or memo pads as applications to meet such users' need.
Users may use such word processing software or memo pads to write an important promise or a simple note and transmit it to an acquaintance directly.
A qwerty keyboard or a touch screen is a common input means of smart phones and tablet PCs for word processing.
However, such a qwerty keyboard or touch screen is poor in terms of user convenience and input speed due to its limited size and accordingly has been limited to simple short messages and text messages.
In recent years, in order to alleviate such inconvenience, wireless smart phone keyboards using Bluetooth communication have been released to help users to write documents easily.
However, this also has a disadvantage of poor portability since users have to carry both of a portable device, such as a smart phone, and a wireless smart phone keyboard.
Accordingly, there is a need of a device which can be utilized as an input means with high portability when users carry a smart phone or a tablet PC.